While You Were Sleeping
by tabancvh
Summary: [AU SSN1] Driving through a small town in Georgia two survivors spot a man in a hospital gown staggering along a deserted road.
1. Chapter 1

**While You Were Sleeping**

**Chapter One: You Can't Go Home**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Walking Dead.

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"I'm telling you he's a deader," said Elsie kicking her feet up on the dash, her boots leaving yet another dusty smear on the grey plastic.

"And I'm telling you he's not," countered Theo as they crept down the road, still a few car-lengths behind the guy in the boxers and hospital gown that was staggering down the street at a fair clip, "I'll bet you five bucks."

"We don't have five bucks," Elsie complained even as Theo put a little pressure on the gas and they pulled up alongside the man, rolling down the window just enough to talk.

"Hey!" Theo called to get his attention, "You alive?"

The guy turned and frowned at them a bit as if he thought the question was stupid, "Looks like it," he answered finally.

"Are you bit?" asked Theo noticing the bandage on his side and the thin rangy, look of him.

He was pale, underfed and slightly ill look and if the fever was burning through him there was nothing they could do for him, Theo had learned that one the hard way.

"Bit?" parroted the guy, looking more confused than ever.

"Yeah, y'know, chomped, munched, chewed on, even scratched," said Theo in a light tone.

"No," said the guy as though Theo was crazy for asking, "If you'll excuse me."

The guy turned to keep walking and Theo was quick to chase after him, "Wait, wait a second, hold up!"

"Look, I'm just trying to get home," said the guy, sharply.

"It's not safe to wander around the streets alone," said Theo seriously, "You're the first live one we've seen in days so we'll give you a lift."

The guy hesitated but a glance down the street seemed to convince him that getting in the truck was a better idea than walking, not that Theo was surprised by that seeing as how the guy wasn't wearing any shoes and already looked pretty footsore.

"Where're we headed?" asked Theo as the guy climbed into the back.

"Straight down this road then hang a left when you get past the park," the guy instructed.

"Alright," Theo said, starting off down the road at a more normal speed, "I'm Theo by the way, Theodore Aldridge, this is my sister Elsie."

Elsie flashed the guy a smile and a small wave.

"Rick Grimes," the guy said.

His voice was hoarse, as if he hadn't been using it for a while, and he winced a bit as he leaned back in his seat his hand straying to his side.

"How'd you get that?" asked Elsie turning around in her seat to study the man.

"Got shot," Rick answered.

"That sucks," said Theo with a wince, "But it looks like they fixed you up alright, were you staying in a refugee centre?"

"What do you mean?" asked Rick.

"Well, you've obviously had some proper medical attention," said Elsie, "And since the hospitals around here were all overrun with deaders weeks ago…"

"Deaders?"

Theo and Elsie shared a glance at the confused tone, "So you don't know what's been going on then," she said, her blonde ponytail swishing over her shoulders as she shook her head.

"I think, I've been in a coma, or something," said Rick, "I woke up in the hospital, and outside—there was a whole field of bodies, they were piled into trucks and loader—there were tanks and jeeps and helicopters. You two are the first people I've seen alive since then."

"Well," said Theo, "I don't know how to tell you this but while you were sleeping the world kinda up and ended on us."

"Thee," scolded Elsie, "You're too blunt."

"Sorry, but it's the truth, sugar-coating it and beating around the bush isn't going to help anyone."

"I'm not sure I understand. The world ended?"

"Well, that's probably overdramatic to say," Theo admitted, "After all, the world is still pretty much here it's just—"

"It started a few months ago," Elsie explained, "Nobody knows for sure how but the dead started getting back up and walking around, and they attacked living people and then anyone who was bit died of the fever and then they got back up and so on."

"That's—"

"Crazy," interrupted Theo, "We know, trust me we do, but we've been living through it so we know that it's true. Nobody believed at first. It was only a few reports, some shaky footage on the news, so people dismissed it as a hoax, but then populated places started being overrun with deaders, they called out the military, the police, the national guard, red cross, you name it. They set up a bunch of refugee centres around schools, libraries and smaller medical or community centres, there's supposed to be a massive one in Atlanta proper but the emergency broadcast went down a few weeks ago now and we haven't heard anything since."

"We were staying in a motel off the highway for a while and one of the guys there got bit—it was a slaughter. Ever since that Theo's been paranoid about getting caught up in a place where there's that many people though so we've been on the road, holing up in empty houses during the night and scavenging supplies."

"Hey Rick, is this the right street?"

Rick looked away from Elsie's serious blue gaze taking in the overgrown yards and familiar houses of his neighbourhood.

"Yeah," he croaked, fear making his throat tight and his already weak voice catch, "This is the place."

It was a pretty house with a half-decent yard and a garden that looked like it hadn't really seen much attention even before the dead started walking around. Rick was out of the truck and up the front steps with more vigour than Theo or Elsie would have given him credit for and they followed more slowly, giving the man a chance to see for himself what they already knew.

There was no home for him to go home to.

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**AN:** Hope you all enjoyed! This is my first time writing for TWD so please review and let me know what you guys thought!


	2. Chapter 2

**While You Were Sleeping**

**Chapter Two: Night Brings Fear but Dawn Brings Hope**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own The Walking Dead

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While the outside of Rick's house looked peaceful and even pretty the inside was ransacked, there were drawers opened and tables and chairs overturned but there were no signs of a struggle. The hastily erected barricades, shell casings, bullet holes and blood stains that usually accompanied a stand against the dead, and most promising, there were no deaders or dead bodies.

Rick was collapsed on the floor of the kitchen, quietly sobbing, and Theo and Elsie left him be and instead started quietly going through the house for things that they could use. Most of the obvious stuff was gone, first aid kit, guns, car and extra gas can but things like batteries, flashlights, tools, and canned food not to mention clothes were quickly packed away into the truck.

Eventually Rick picked himself off the floor and locked himself away in the bathroom, when he came out he was dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and he'd shaved off the grey-brown beard that had taken over much of the bottom half of his face. He looked about ten years younger for it too.

"You okay?" asked Theo.

"I will be," answered Rick, "My wife and son, they were alive when they left here."

"Looks like it," agreed Theo easily.

"Where would they go?"

Theo took a second assessing look at the house, trying to figure out what kind of person Mrs. Grimes was, because in his experience there were two kinds of people in a situation like this, the ones who ran for shelter and the ones who stood and fought. Most people were sheep, they flocked together, but Rick seemed more like a fighter. There was a sort of steel in his gaze and he was taking everything far better than Theo would have in his position.

"Depends," said Elsie, leaning against the doorframe a duffle bag full of Mrs. Grimes' clothes over one shoulder, "What did she take?"

"Pictures," answered Rick immediately, "All of our family photo albums."

Theo sighed.

"Then I'll bet you any money she went up to Atlanta to try for the refugee centre. You said you have a son?"

"Yeah, Carl, he's nine or maybe ten now," answered Rick.

"She'd want to take him to where she thought he'd be safest," nodded Elsie working through her brother's line of reasoning with the ease of long practice.

"Yeah," agreed Rick, "That sounds like Lori. Can I ask you for a favour?"

"Sure."

"Can I get a ride over to the sheriff's station? It's just outside of town proper, off the main road."

Theo and Elsie exchanged a glance.

"It's getting late," Elsie hedged.

Rick quirked a brow, it was late afternoon the shadows were just starting to lengthen but the sun wouldn't be down for another couple hours. To anyone who hadn't lived through the recent months it would have been plenty of time to hole up somewhere.

"The deaders are more active after dark," Theo explained, "We don't know if the station will be secure or not, better for the three of us to hunker down here for the night and wait until morning to move."

"Alright," agreed Rick, though his hand twitched a bit in silent impatience.

"Right, gimme the keys. I'll stow this gear, move the truck and get the boards," said Elsie.

Reaching into his pocket Theo tossed the truck keys at her in an underhanded lob, Elsie caught them, her mouth twisting inexorably into a wide grin, and she turned, all but skipping out the door.

Rick arched a brow.

"She's tired of just having me for company so I think she's excited you're staying with us," Theo felt compelled to explain, moving further into the house and opening up the linen closet.

He took out the extra sheets and blankets and started carrying them upstairs to the attic/office.

"What're you doing?" asked Rick, watching him work.

"Elsie and I scoped the place out earlier," Theo explained taking the stairs two at a time, "The roof here extends right over your driveway, see? Els will park the truck here, that way if for some reason we can't stay in the house and have to make a quick getaway we can jump from here to the roof of the cab without too much trouble."

"That makes sense," agreed Rick, watching as Elsie backed the truck right up against the garage.

"The key seems to be noise and light," Theo said pinning the sheets up in front of the windows, "It attracts them, the deaders, and they start to gather. The bigger the group the more crap you're in. One-on-one, they're easy enough to handle, do enough damage to the head and they're done. Look, watch Elsie."

Down below Elsie was crouched in the yard, using the garden for cover and a man in a suit with his knee twisted at an impossible angle was ambling along, his head weaving back and forth as he searched for prey.

Elsie sidled back over to the truck and grabbed an aluminum baseball bat from the front seat. She waited, twitching with impatience, for the deader to stagger past her and then moved from the yard darting out into the street behind it and catching it with a two handed blow across the curve of the skull.

"There aren't too many of them rotted enough for one blow to do the trick," Theo whispered, watching intently as his sister brought the bat down on the former businessman's temple mercilessly until there was a puddle of coagulated blood and rotting ooze forming under the remnants of its head.

She then calmly wiped the bat off on his jacket, checked the street for more of the dead and then flashed Theo the thumbs up.

Theo, for his part, breathed a sigh of relief. Elsie was good at putting down deaders after the motel and then the shopping centre, but all it took was one slip up. Get bit and that's it was the motto of the day.

Rick had gone very pale and was staring at Elsie's back as though he'd never seen anything like her before as she pulled the boards out from the truck bed and sauntered back up to the house.

"Jesus Christ," he muttered, "She just caved that man's head in."

Theo snorted and went back to making sure the sheets covered the windows, there was enough overlap that they could put the lantern on dim if they wanted to but Theo didn't think that they'd risk it, not when they had a nearly guaranteed full night of sleep ahead of them.

"It wasn't a man. Just like it's never a man, or a woman or a child. The deaders, all they are, are these rotten shells filled with hunger. It's hard to process at first but when you watch them do their thing enough you start to accept it. They're not sick people anymore, everything about them that made them a person is gone, and all they want is to eat your flesh and if you hesitate that's what'll happen."

Downstairs they heard the muffled knocks as Elsie wrapped the Grimes' spare framing hammer in a towel and used it to board up the doors, pulling the heavy shutters closed and shut across the downstairs windows.

"Why is she—"

"A door or a fence will stump your average deader, and then they'll either keep running up against the barrier or get distracted and move along, simple enough right? You'd think you'd be safe in a house or a car, just lock yourself in and hole up," Theo explained, "But if they know you're there they get smarter, or more determined or whatever. They can open simple doors, beat against windows with rocks. It can take days for them to forget why they're trying to get past something."

Rick watched the street as the sun started to set, peeking through the curtains while Theo and Elsie got settled on makeshift beds, and ploughed through a dinner of canned peaches and stale granola bars as if they hadn't seen food for weeks, and they hadn't, at least not food that wasn't canned beans of one variety or another. Rick watched them out of the corner of his eye, making slower headway with the tin of chicken soup, the twenty-five percent less sodium kind that Lori insisted on buying even though it didn't taste like anything just because it was supposedly better for them. Truth be told Rick had a hard time not clutching the can and the memory to his chest and crying.

They're alive, he repeated to himself, you just have to find them and you won't be able to do that if you have a breakdown over a can of soup.

He turned his full attention back to the street. One by one the supposed-dead started to leak out of the surrounding houses and gather in the street, dozens of them milling around in an aimless shuffle that took them in circles more often than not.

"What are they doing?" asked Rick.

"Hunting," whispered Elsie, turning over to lie on her stomach, watching Rick watch the dead.

"They seem harmless enough like this, slow and stupid but they'll get riled if they see or smell you and forget about making any noise, that'll draw them in faster than anything and once you get them in a group—"

Theo grit his teeth on the ranting lecture that wanted to bubble up out of his throat. It wouldn't do any good to bombard the already confused man with more information than his newly rebooted brain could handle.

"That's how we lost the shopping centre group," said Elsie softly, sniffing.

Theo shot his sister a concerned look. Els had always been the kind of person who just felt a lot all the time. She cried or laughed at the drop of a hat, a sharp contrast to Theo's muted stubborn stoicism, in a lot of ways the past few months had been harder on her than him.

"Is it just the two of you?" asked Rick, sympathetically.

"Who knows," shrugged Theo philosophically.

"We're not actually from around here," said Elsie, "We were on our way back home from visiting our grandad in Ecuador when this whole thing started and we kept on getting stopped and detoured, and ended up here when the outbreak reached a critical level."

"No one knows how far the infection has spread at this point," said Theo, "Our family lives in and around the Toronto area for the most part, it could be they got out of dodge before things got bad, it could be the infection didn't spread that far North and we're just under country-wide quarantine."

"But you don't think that," said Rick.

Theo shrugged again.

"If that were the case there'd probably still be radio broadcasting, air drops with supplies and news choppers hovering around. My bet is that this thing spread too fast for containment. Maybe a few of the islands aren't affected but—"

He spread his hands to indicate the uselessness of trying to get to those countries, and being let in even if they did make it over there.

"So in other words, you think there's no place to run."

Theo shrugged again, "Maybe there is, maybe there isn't."

"We decided a few months ago that we're just going to try and ride it out as best we can, and then try and make it back home once things have settled down," said Elsie around a yawn.

"Sleep," Theo ordered flicking her in the centre of her forehead, "We're alright for tonight I think."

"Then you sleep too," she shot back, rolling over and tugging her blankets up around her shoulders, trying and failing to suppress another yawn.

"Tomorrow," said Theo into the stretching silence, "You're gonna go looking for your wife and kid, right? Head out to Atlanta?"

"That was the plan," agreed Rick.

"Look, no offence, but you'll have a better chance on the road with us. We'll take you as far as Atlanta help you look for them, a bit, but if you don't find them, you should come with us," offered Theo.

"I'll think about it," said Rick.

"Good," said Theo, settling back against the pillows he pilfered out of Rick's son's room, "Night Rick."

"Good night."

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**AN:** And that's the chappie.Please feel free to leave a review and let me know what you think!


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